Friday, January 6, 2017

The Rogue Trader Project

Games Workshop's Rogue Trader turns thirty this year, and I thought that would be a thing worth celebrating!

I came to Warhammer 40k after Rogue Trader. I cut my teeth on 2nd edition, with it's big box of glorious plastic. It was only years later that a friend gave me a well-loved copy of the original Rogue Trader rules.

Now I've never actually played the rules themselves, and don't really intend to. Not that I have anything against them, but Pulp Alley is my go-to for these kinds of games these days.

I'm not big on the rules, I also don't own a single Rogue Trader era figure. Back in the day, I did have a half dozen blisters of figures (commissars, Imperial Guard, penal legion, adventurers, space pirates, and gangers). But they're long gone. And much as I love all the Oldhammer action on the blogs and the forums, I've never felt compelled to jump in. For me, the golden age of GW figures came later: the Inquisition, Mordheim, Necromunda.

So for me, Rogue Trader is not the rules, it's not the figures. What I love is the Rogue Trader universe: the feel and the spirit of the game, rather than the letter of it. The one thing that sums it up best is the plot generator. One hundred glorious little scenario outlines. Ideas to chuckle at, ideas to dream of creating, ideas that open up new worlds.

This year, I plan to play a randomly chosen Rogue Trader scenario each month. But here's the deal. During the month, I'll post up the figures and terrain I'm putting together for the scenario. But it's only at the end of the month that the scenario will be unveiled, with a report to follow.

Twelve months, twelve games of Rogue Trader flavoured goodness. The only question: when will Abdul Goldberg show his face?

That sounds great. I too stand at the edge of the Oldhammer movement, I am enamoured with the ethos and practice, but my gaming background doesn't leave me nostalgic for the distant GW past.

To me, the only good part of the "Rogue Stars" rulebook is the Missions and Complications charts that resembles the scenarios in the RT book. My gaming buddies and I have been using those Rogue Stars charts to drive other skirmish games like Pulp Alley and Kill Team.

This is a great project and I am looking forward to seeing all 12 episodes.

Well done, you are not alone in playing rogue trader games with pulp alley rules (I like to use oldhammer miniatures too). I just ended a campaign of 9 scenarios with a player and today We started another, and we used the plot generator of the RT book for the first scenario too :D